Former SF Supervisor Mar fined for accepting tickets to Outside Lands

Former Supervisor Eric Mar was fined for ethics violations for not disclosing the value of gift tickets to Outside Lands.

Former Supervisor Eric Mar was fined for ethics violations for not...

Former San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar will pay more than $26,000 for state and city ethics violations associated with concert tickets he took from Another Planet Entertainment within months of sponsoring a board resolution to extend the company’s permit for its Outside Lands festival in Golden Gate Park.

Mar was fined $16,690 by the San Francisco Ethics Commission and $9,500 by the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission for failing to disclose the true amount of the tickets and for exceeding the city’s gift limit of $25 from a person or entity whose contract is approved by the recipient.

From 2011 to 2015, Mar received $7,208.50 in tickets to Another Planet’s Outside Lands and Treasure Island festivals, but he reported only $2,523 in gifts during that period, according to a stipulation and order that the Fair Political Practices Commission published Monday. Some of the tickets came directly from Another Planet, while others were divvied out by the city’s Recreation and Park Department.

In December 2012, Mar sponsored a board resolution to extend Another Planet’s permit to hold Outside Lands in Golden Gate Park for another eight years.

Mar voted in favor of the resolution, which was approved unanimously.

“Because Golden gate Park was in my supervisorial district and I spent quite a bit of my time on neighborhood issues related to the impacts of entertainment events on our residents, I believed in good faith that my work duties with regard to the events there, including the Outside Lands concerts, fell within an exception to the local and statewide gift rules...” he said.

Mar later learned that his interpretation of the rules was incorrect. He admitted to the state violations and paid the $9,500 fine, which will be held in escrow until the commission votes on the settlement next week. If the state settlement is approved, then Mar will pay the city ethics penalty in three installments, beginning later this month.

— Rachel Swan

A long burn: The Board of Supervisors continues to wrestle with legislation to govern recreational marijuana when sales become legal in California on Jan. 1. After facing round criticism from state Sen. Scott Wiener, several San Francisco supervisors doubled down on restrictions they’d proposed for the cannabis industry.

At a meeting Monday of the Land Use and Transportation Committee, Supervisors Katy Tang and Norman Yee stuck by their request that every dispensary be 1,000 feet from the nearest school or day care facility, a significantly larger buffer than the state’s recommendation of 600 feet.

Supervisor Mark Farrell called for an amendment that would require 600 feet between dispensaries, twice the distance requested in the original ordinance sponsored by Mayor Ed Lee.

But other supervisors called for looser rules and asked the city to accelerate permits to sell recreational marijuana. Supervisor Jeff Sheehy introduced an amendment that would allow existing dispensaries to add recreational inventory on Jan. 1.

“We’re operating in a world where Berkeley is going to have a legal framework in place (for cannabis), and Oakland is going to have a legal framework in place,” Sheehy said. He chided his colleagues for “helping” nearby cities compete with San Francisco.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin stood by his proposed dispensary ban in Chinatown, but hinted that he might back off if it didn’t get support from Lee.

The supervisors asked for a copy to be made of the legislation, so that one version would closely resemble the original. They piled most of the amendments into the second version. Both will go before the full board later this month.